Follow Us

DataPoint: Candy Crush Saga continues to grow – but will it sustain?

When King, the makers of the hugely-popular Candy Crush Saga, filed for an IPO last month, there was no shortage of speculation about the company’s sustainability. Even though the game maker racked up $1.88 billion in revenue last year (largely relying on Candy Crush Saga), there were some worrying signs already. Besides the troubling performances of other social-gaming companies like Zynga, King saw its revenue decline by about $20,000 between Q3 and Q4 of last year, while its profits declined by over $70,500 in the same time period.

User interest is still going strong, according to Mediabistro’s research tool, AppData. Candy Crush Saga continues to enjoy phenomenal growth, withFaceook monthly active users (MAUs) up 490 percent this year. Daily active users (DAUs) are up 570 percent this year. Even better news for the company is that DAU/MAU engagement has gone up 5 percent in the same time period, showing that more users are playing the game on a daily basis.

Troubling signs still portend. Besides the decline in revenue and profits, the company relies on Candy Crush Saga for 78 percent of its revenue. The game’s Facebook page has seen a significant decrease in engagement recently, losing almost 50,000 People Talking About This in the past week. Though the page has maintained consistent growth in likes it looks like that is starting to plateau as well. Check out this chart, courtesy of PageData:

It’s worth noting that other games by the company, Pet Rescue Saga and Farm Heroes Saga, are topping AppData’s MAU leaderboard for this week:

For more information about Mediabistro’s research tools, click here for AppData or here for PageData. You can also call 415-230-2558.

What do you think about King’s planned IPO? Is social gaming a sustainable business?